Union Society Building

To assist the Town of Eastford, the USBC assesses the needs
of the historic 1806 Union Society of Phoenixville House and raises funds for
its improvement.

The Union Society of Phoenixville House, located at the
junction of Routes 198 and 44, was constructed in 1806 by mill owner Smith
Snow. In the 1800s, when children worked 12-hour-days in factories and on farms
and had little time for education, Union Societies across the U.S. formed to
teach children to read during Sunday School. This building, along with other
homes, hosted the Union Society Sunday School in Phoenixville. In 1907 a
nonprofit Union Society of Phoenixville purchased the building, which also
hosted social events for area villagers. All were welcome regardless of
spiritual belief, ethnic origin, gender or age. Most of the participants were
poor immigrant families, some so poor that they could not afford Christmas
gifts. That holiday, in particular, was a highlight of the year for many
families because an orange and box of hard candy was given to each child. In
1918, gifts were given to 87 Phoenixville children. In 1933, a reunion
attracted 150 people. Membership dwindled in the late 20th Century. In 2002,
the Town of Eastford purchased the building. The USBC was formed in 2006 and,
through the present, has worked to save the building, assess its needs and
raise funds. Since 2005, at least 30 people have gotten paid work from Union
Society’s projects. More than 130 businesses, organizations and individuals
have helped the town raise more than $20,000 in dollars and about $180,000 in
grants. All funds go to the Town and are directed by the Selectmen. In addition
to fundraising, some 40 volunteers have worked to improve the building. USBC Members
are: Carol Davidge, Chair; Ed Windecker, Vice Chair; Tom DeJohn, Betsy
DiQuattro, Mary Ellen Ellsworth, Jean Hixson, Chris Sardi.

History

In 2002, after a Town Meeting approved the action, the Town
of Eastford
purchased the 1806 Union Society of Phoenixville House where villagers had
gathered for 150 years with the objective of teaching children to read during
Sunday School and providing morally uplifting activities. Everyone was welcome
to attend, regardless of spiritual belief, ethnic origin, gender or age. Mostly
poor immigrant families participated at the Union Society. Since 1907, the
building had been owned by a private organization, which like so many volunteer
organizations in the new millenium, found itself with too few members to continue.
The deed says that the property is transferred for Town use and not for
commercial or residential purposes. Today, only two Union Society buildings
still stand in Connecticut,
one of which is Eastford’s. But this historic house was in poor condition, and
in December 2004, requests for bids to demolish the building were sought by the
Town. Meanwhile the Board of Selectmen also asked Mary Ellen Ellsworth and
Carol Davidge to see if the building could be saved, and delayed demolition.
Thus began the search for the history of the Union Society House.

Mary Ellen met
representatives of the State Historic Preservation Office and The Last Green
Valley as well as the State Archaeologist and others for a tour of the building
to obtain independent observations. All said that the building should be saved.
Carol contacted noted Connecticut
historian Bruce Clouette to learn more about why the building was called “The
Union Society.” The early 1800s was a time of great controversy because the
Congregational Church was also the official government in towns, and the only
people who could vote were men who owned property, were members of the
Congregational Church, and paid taxes to the church. Baptists, Methodists,
Episcopaleans, Quakers and others protested, arguing for “toleration” or
“disestablishment” (i.e., separation of church and state and the right to
vote). “A ‘union’ church is one that embraces Congregationalists and other
denominations,” and if Congregationalists in Eastford supported a “union”
church, this “would be a very advanced idea indeed for 1810,” wrote Clouette. Carol
also contacted Skip Stout, professor of divinity at Yale University
and an expert on colonial religious life. “I have never heard of such a group.
I think you may have something rare there,” he said.

Encouraged, we contacted
The Last Green Valley, and the Town of Eastford
received a grant for $9,450 to assess the viability and importance of the
building. Consultants included restoration carpenter William Gould of Pomfret, Bruce
Clouette of Storrs, and John O. Curtis of Massachusetts,
who was curator at Old
Sturbridge Village
for many years. Gould discovered many valuable architectural assets including original
grain painted interiors, and he and former Union Society President Mark Sheldon
placed a tarp over the deteriorating roof.

In his assessment
report, Curtis concluded:

“The Union Society House is among the oldest buildings in
the community. The Union Society house has played an important and integral
role in the social life of Phoenixville. To lose the building and the site is
to lose forever an icon that has long been an enduring link with the
community’s past. The open space preserved for so many years by the Union
Society occupies the key intersection in the Village (of Phoenixville). Its
very openness is a welcome rarity in this age of gasoline stations at every
crossroads and rampant commercial development. In its quiet way, it speaks
eloquently of the unspoiled charm of a village landscape….”

Clouette documented
the history of the house in state and local records. There are very few
original documents, and he could not verify that the villagers were part of a
“union” church. However, he dated the building to 1806 when mill owner Smith
Snow built the house as a wedding present for his bride. By the 1850s, Snow no
longer used the house and it was passed to various descendants. During this
time it and other homes in Phoenixville were used for the Sunday gatherings.
Oral history, recorded in the early 20th century, reports that these
gatherings go back to at least 1857. The house was known at “The Community
House.” In 1906, the Union Society of Phoenixville incorporated to purchase the
property and carry on its community work. Sunday Schools, whist games, pot luck
suppers, wild game suppers, oyster supper fundraisers for the fire company, meetings
of 4-H and Boy Scouts, and flea markets were held during the 20th
century. Most fondly remembered are the Christmas festivities, where children
presented pageants, sang solos, and Santa presented an orange and a box of hard
candy to each child. In 1918, 87 children received such holiday gifts.

In 2006, The Last Green Valley provided a
second grant to the Town, $25,000 for historic restoration of the crumbling
foundation, and mason H. Ray Paine of Pomfret repaired the damage. In September
2006, an informational meeting was held, followed by a Town meeting in October
which approved establishing a Union Society Building Committee (USBC) to assess
the viability of the building and make recommendations to the Town. Members met
from October through March 2006 and recommended saving the building in March
2007. In June 2007, a Town meeting approved seeking listing on the State and
National Registers of Historic Places, as pre-requisite to obtaining future
grants. The building was listed on State and National Registers in December,
2007.

Also essential to
obtaining grants was the Historic Structures Report (HSR), to be done by
historic preservationists, who publish the history and document the
architecture. In 2008, a grant for $1,500 to conduct a Historic Structures
Report was provided by Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation (matched by
$1,500 in funds raised by the USBC). Architectural preservationist John Hinchman,
who grew up in Pomfret and now teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, along
with graduate students Meredith Keller and Meredith Marsh, studied the building
and found original walls, stairs, and wallpapers, the location of the former
chimney and rooms within the house. Meanwhile Fundraisers by the USBC included
tag sales, a tapestry sale, and an annual auction held at Heritage Day.

In 2009,
structural engineer Beth Acly discovered that many of the roof rafters had
decayed so that the roof might collapse. The Town received a grant for $3,000
from Connecticut Trust for architectural plans by Acly and architect Robert
Hurd of Hartford. The Town applied for and received an Emergency Endangered
Building Grant of $28,950 from the Connecticut Department of Economic
Development’s Historic Preservation Division, which was matched by $16,500 from
the original Union Society group, USBC-raised funds, an $8,000 grant and an
$8,000 Town loan to enable the roof to be replaced. ($3,000 of the $8,000 loan
has been repaid from USBC fundraisers). Heritage Building
and Design of Pomfret was the low bidder, and the roof rehabilitation was
completed in December 2010.

The Town received a grant for $3,000 from Connecticut Trust
for architectural plans by Acly and architect Robert Hurd of Hartford. The Town
applied for and received an Emergency Endangered Building Grant of $28,950 from
the Connecticut Department of Economic Development’s Historic Preservation
Division, which was matched by $16,500 from the original Union Society group,
USBC-raised funds, an $8,000 grant and an $8,000 Town loan to enable the roof
to be replaced. ($3,000 of the $8,000 loan has been repaid from USBC
fundraisers). Heritage
Building and Design of
Pomfret was the low bidder, and the roof rehabilitation was completed in
December 2010.

As part of the roof grant, the State of Connecticut required
a 10-year preservation easement on the building and property, requiring that
the building be maintained and that an alternative experience exhibit be shown
to educate the public about the project. Shown below is a hand-on display at
Heritage Day 2012 including a model of the building created by volunteer Karen
Butts and Scouts Robert and Nathan Johnson.

In the fall of
2009, the Selectmen applied for a Small Town Economic Assistance Grant to add
an ell that would place handicapped-accessible facilities outside the historic
building to save the original historic fabric of the house. A grant for
$100,000 was awarded to the Town in September, 2010. A grant of $4,250 was
awarded by Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation matched by town funds
raised by the USBC and $1,000 from the Eastford Historical Society. After state
reviews and approval, in August 2012 bids ranging from a low of $136,568 to a
high of $183,400 were received, all more than the town had for this project. A
Town Meeting to obtain the necessary funding for the addition was held October
15, 2012, but the proposal was defeated by a vote of 49 to 41.

The USBC continues its outreach and fundraising efforts. It
is also working on architectural designs to make the house usable to the
public.

Since 2005, at
least 30 people have gotten paid work from Union Society’s projects. More than
130 businesses, organizations and individuals have helped the town raise more
than $20,000 in dollars and about $180,000 in grants. All funds go to the Town
and are directed by the Selectmen. In addition to fundraising, some 40
volunteers have worked to improve the building, including painting the exterior.

Because attendance
at history museums is declining, granting agencies want historic properties to
find an “adaptive re-use” and serve multiple functions. Once rehabilitated, the
Union Society House can serve local and regional groups, consistent with its
history as a gathering place. Since 2005, eight major grants for the Union
Society building have been awarded to the town. These have allowed nationally-recognized
architectural conservators, archaeologists, engineers, and historians to assess
the building, and all have recommended saving it plus adding an ell for
handicapped accessible facilities. The intersection of Route 198 at U.S. Route
44 in Eastford shows the only 19th century village vista between
Bolton and the Rhode Island
border on U.S. Route 44 and Route 101. Ten thousand cars pass this intersection
daily. It is a gateway to northeastern Connecticut and to the Town of Eastford. The Eastford
Historical Society, The Last Green Valley, Connecticut Trust for Historic
Preservation, legislators and many others support saving the Union Society of
Phoenixville House.

Eastford’s Charter Oak Descendant at the Union Society Property

Synopsis

In 2013, Ed
Richardson (below left) of the Connecticut Notable Trees Project and Mark
Sheldon (right), former President of the Union Society organization and former
member of the USBC, validated a white oak on the east lawn of the building as
being a descendant of the original Connecticut Charter Oak.

Background:

“In the mid-1980s, probably 1986, Mark
Sheldon, President of the Union Society of Phoenixville, received a phone call
from the town hall saying that they had been offered an offspring of the
Charter Oak by the CT department of forestry. The TOB said that there was no
town land on which to plant the tree, and would the Union Society be willing to
plant the tree on their property. As president of the Union Society at that time,
Mark accepted the tree and designated that it be planted in the center of the
lawn to the east side of the Union Society of Phoenixville House. At that time
it had a 6 inch caliper. The background is that the Connecticut Charter Oak was
blown down by a ferocious tropical storm on August 21, 1856. Estimates of that
tree’s age are that it was from 800 to 1000 years old. Many of its acorns had been planted over the
years. In 1974, from the Charter Oak’s first generation descendants in Bushnell
Park, hundreds of acorns were planted by the State Forest Department in
anticipation of the U.S. Bicentennial. In 1976, the offspring seedlings were
offered to each of the 169 towns in Connecticut, 109 towns accepted the trees,
but in 1986 only 57 had survived. Ten years later the Forest Department again
offered the descendant trees, which had continued to grow since the
Bicentennial, and these are the trees that the Town of Eastford called Mark
Sheldon about. Mark specified at that time that this tree must be planted in
the open space on the east lawn where it would have plenty of open air to grow
undisturbed. Recently, on October 22, 2013, Edward A. Richardson of the
Connecticut Notable Trees Project based at Conn College, came to the Town’s
Union Society property to assess this tree, at the request of Carol Davidge,
Chair of the Union Society Building Committee for the Town of Eastford. Present
were Mark Sheldon, Carol Davidge, Leslie Lavallee, Marion Richardson and Ed
Richardson. Photos were taken to document the occasion. Ed measured the tree,
declared that it is a white oak with growth consistent with the growth of a
sapling dating to the Bicentennial of the United States (1974). Ed declared
that, because of Mark’s history of the tree and its physical attributes, the
tree on the Union Society property is a descendant of the original Charter Oak,
and that it is perfect in several ways. First the spread is perfectly 30 feet
in any direction at this time. Second, the fall foliage is spectacular. Third,
it is healthy and strong and must be well cared for and preserved as a
descendant of Connecticut’s Charter Oak. Ed is placing this tree on the list of
historic trees in the Connecticut Notable Trees Project see (http://oak.conncoll.edu:8080/notabletrees/). As of November 1, this tree was shown on the calendar
list of activities for the week including October 22 as: “new tree: 90 point
white oak, Eastford”. A paper copy of the entry is attached. The following is
now on the Connecticut Notable Trees Listing see:(http://oak.conncoll.edu:8080/notabletrees/ViewTreeData.jsp?selected=225592):

“By the 1976 celebration of the
U.S. Bicentennial, the tradition of planting offspring of the Charter Oak for
commemorative purposes in Connecticut was well established. In the fall of
1974, acorns were collected from the first generation Charter Oak descendants
in Bushnell Park and planted in the State Forest Tree Nursery, Pachaug State
Forest, Voluntown. The State Forestry Bureau offered a seedling to each
Connecticut municipality as a living monument commemorating 200 years of
democracy. The 109 seedlings requested and distributed by early July 1976 were
one year old and 12 to 15 inches tall.

Ten years later 57 trees, or 52 percent of
the original number, were found alive (Appendix II). Thanks to the Forestry
Bureau’s own follow-up, requesting a map of where each town planted its tree,
we are confident that our count is accurate. Reasons for high mortality of this
group of Oaks are probably the same as for the 1965 trees. Many towns placed
the trees directly into a landscape setting-rather dangerous for such small
plants. At this time (1990), the surviving trees are 3 to 12 inches in
circumference and 6 to 20 feet tall.”